This application is a 35 USC 371 application of PCT/DE 00/03396 filed on Sep. 27, 2000.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for air guidance in a processing chamber and in particular, to a method of and an apparatus for dispensing pharmaceuticals or similar products into packaging containers inside a housing of a packaging machine is intended.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Known apparatuses of the type with which this invention is concerned are often constructed by so-called isolator technology; that is, the filling and sealing of the packaging containers are done under clean-room conditions, so that neither the previously sterilized packaging containers nor the product can become contaminated from external factors. To that end, the filling and sealing region of the apparatus in particular is surrounded by a housing, in which the air located in the interior is either recirculated through a clean-air filter, or else constantly cleaned air is delivered from outside through a clean-air filter (European Patent Disclosure EP 0 604 925 B1). Also in such apparatuses, it is often necessary to be able to make manual interventions from outside in the production chamber, for example to adjust equipment. Intervention using gloves (EP 0 604 925 B1) and free intervention without gloves are both known methods. In the latter option, there is always the risk either of contamination of the production room from outside or contamination of the outside region from the production room itself.
The object of the invention is therefore to embody a method of and an apparatus for air guidance in a processing chamber in such a way that contamination of both the processing chamber or production room and of the outside region, from which manipulations in the production room are made, is precluded or at least reduced to a certain tolerable amount. This object is attained with a method and an apparatus according to the invention which are distinguished in that at the instant when interventions into the production room are made, in particular through a gap between the production room and the outside region, air flowing out of the production room in the direction of the outside region and vice versa is aspirated away via an interstice and thus cannot reach the respectively other region.
Further advantageous refinements of the method according to the invention and of its apparatus will become apparent from the description contained below, taken with the drawings, in which: